The warning reached the apartment building three times before anyone came to its door. A radio in the upper kitchen repeated the alternate shelter’s address. A scout called through the lane. A neighbor shouted from the far side of the fallen stairwell that vehicles were being arranged. Each announcement used the main entrance on the district map, which had been blocked since the earlier gate incident. From the second floor, the people inside could hear urgency moving away from them.
At the clinic, the first count looked almost good enough. A volunteer had marked the building as departed because its street had been cleared during the previous warning. She was carrying the sheet toward the barrier station when another worker recognized the address.
“Which door did they use?” he asked.
“The main list says cleared.”
“The main door has half a landing against it.”
She stopped. They took the sheet back to the receiving desk and changed the entry from departed to unverified. The correction put eleven people back inside the dangerous area. It also gave a search team somewhere precise to go.
Tessa heard the change from below. She asked whether any of the eleven had equipment registered with the clinic. Two did. A third name appeared only as a family contact and might no longer live there. Her deputy sent a nurse with the door team and left another crew preparing the vehicles. Searching and preparing could happen together. Sending every available worker to one blocked building would…
